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Originally to be posted at Big Blue Cup, but that site's review controls have gone to poo. So, better here then nowhere...

Firstly I must apologize for the belatedness of this review. I was abroad upon the release of Trilby's Notes, and thusly I wasn't privy of its existence until of recent. Being an unabashed huge fan of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's -Days Series-, it was with much elation that I embarked upon Trilby's Notes. I have reviewed the earlier works being "5 Days A Stranger" and "7 Days A Skeptic" before, and it is with great pleasure that I review the latest release in this wonderful series. As such I will also adhere to avoiding "spoilers" as much as possible, and focus on the merits of the game itself.

The first question is: "Is -Trilby's Notes- the best "Days" game yet?"

The answer to that question is a resounding and thunderous: "Yes!"

Nearly every single aspect of Trilby's Notes exceeds even the lofty ambitions of its predecessors - an achievement in and of itself. Without a sliver of doubt, Trilby's Notes is far and away the very best AGS game yet. And it is quite frankly one of the top 10 adventure games of all time, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, Trilby's Notes suffers from one mighty flaw, one which it shares with the earlier "Days" games. But we will touch upon that flaw later in this review. If you merely question whether or not Trilby's Notes is worth playing, you can stop reading now and hit that DOWNLOAD button as fast as your finger can squish the mouse button.

Let's look at the specifics:

Story:

Indeed, unlike 5 Days a stranger, I was very rarely confused while following Trilby's Notes' plot. I must confess that I simply do not believe that the events which occurred in Trilby's Notes were preconceived at the time of Ben's creating 5 Days and 7 Days. It seemed to me that throughout Trilby's Notes, Mr. Croshaw was bending himself over backwards to make the outlandish things which occured in 5 Days make some sort of sense afterall. It sometimes felt that Ben was nearly apologizing at times even. (There were far less elements present to suggest how 7 Days came to be, but I have a feeling that the next, and presumably last, "Days" game will continue on that tangent.) That said, it is actually quite admirable how much sense Ben was able to make out of 5 Days' rather hole-ridden plot, and even more so how impressive it was for him to be able to expand upon it in such a creative way. It is difficult to talk of Trilby's Notes story without giving away spoilers however, so I'll abstain from specifics. I will say that Trilby's Notes is easily a better read than any silly King novel I've ever read, or Koontz, or Barker even. Indeed, Trilby's Notes' story harkens beyond such blase subject matter and falls more in line with Lovecraft and Poe... yet combined with Silent Hill. Indeed, it seems that Ben must be a very -huge- fan of the Silent Hill series. Thankfully, the conventions of the usual Friday The 13th-Jason aspect is mostly absent in Trilby's Notes, in no small part due to the nearly complete absence of John Defoe, the "Welder". It is quite clear that Ben Croshaw had a seachange in his idea of what "horror" is somewhere between the completion of 7 Days A Skeptic and Trilby's Notes. And that seachange has lead to a fantastic, and frightening story, that is a very deep, and very dark rabbit hole indeed. I would give the story a 9/10 overall, my favorite parts being the flashbacks... a fabulous and extremely well implemented idea.

Graphics:

Trilby's Notes' pixel work is at first seemingly undetailed, and overall, the detail level isn't exceptional. Much of the artwork in the game is quite flat from a texure perspective and mostly unshaded insofar as gradient fills are concerned. However, this moderate-conservative style of artwork soon becomes its own atmosphere... and achieves this as of such due to -consistency-. Graphical consistency is something that many amateur adventure games lack in spades. Ben Croshaw is no stranger to creating game graphics however, and because of this his artistic restraint becomes evident as a conscious means to a unified end. The synergy of the graphics is more important than the individual elements. As such this synergy leads to a game simply dripping with atmosphere. Importantly, one of Ben's strongest suits graphically is displayed throughout Trilby's Notes continuously... animation. Trilby's Notes' characters and action scenes are extremely well animated, as are most of Ben's works. Mr. Croshaw has definitely mastered his animation technique to a glorious sheen. The last part of Trilby's Notes, the credits, displays the major characters of the game as portraits, and these portraits are fairly well detailed... showing that perhaps with infinite time and finance, Ben could make a very graphically detailed game afterall. Overall, I'd give the graphics 8/10.

Sound FX:

Trilby's Notes' sound FX have a strength and weakness. The strength lies within their realism. The sound of blade entering flesh in this game will make you squirm more than once. Trilby's footfalls sound different depending on the surface they trod upon, a nice touch. Something as mundane as a fire flickering even captures the crackles of the fuel being spent. It is evident that great care was put into the creation of these sound FX. Their weakness? There's not enough ambient sound FX. Without going into detail and risking spoilers, I would simply say that more attention to ambient sound FX could of greatly enhanced the flashback portions of the game. However, I would still give the Sound FX a 8/10, if not else than for the "whispering ghosts" effect... truly unnerving the first time it is experienced.

Music:

Trilby's Notes' music is better than any of Ben's previous works if for naught else than the mere fact that the soundtrack is -original-. A very welcomed fact considering all of the previous Ramblomatic games apparently used ripped "RPG Maker" MIDIs as their music. (For example, the 1213 series... there's nothing quite as disconcerting as hearing fantasy music as the backdrop to science fiction horror games.) Thankfully, it seems from now on that Ben will have original soundtracks produced for his Ramblomatic titles. Unfortunately, just because the music for Trilby's Notes is original, that doesn't mean it is -good-. As homebrewn MIDI music is concerned, certain pieces of this soundtrack are indeed mildly adequate. These "adequate" pieces are usually very genre defined... therefore following a previously established standard, and thereby seeming tritely formulaic. The other more "experimental" MIDI themes presented seem, for lack of a better term, "goofy". A perfect example would be the music that plays at Trilby's Notes' title screen. That piece sounds like something out of a spaghetti western moreso than a foreboding dirge. There were simply more than a few moments in playing this game that I felt the excellent atmosphere was ruined by music that simply wasn't worthy of this title. Without going into boring technical jargon concerning MIDI music creation, there is just so. much. more. you can do with general MIDI sequencing. My apologies to Mr. Lovegrove, but I do hope Sir Yahtzee finds a better MIDI composer for his future Ramblomatic titles. Overall, I'd give the Music a 6/10, with a bonus "E" for effort.

Puzzles:

And here we are... the heart of the adventure game. No my friends, the story is not the decisive factor. For what is a wonderful story driven adventure game yet afflicted with aneurysm inducing nonsensible puzzles? (5 Days A Stranger, that's what.) Fortunately, Trilby's Notes does not fall into that quagmire... initially. Honestly, before we go further we must consider that Trilby's Notes is quite different than its predecessors in one very crucial way... the interface. Because Trilby's Notes uses a text parser instead of a point and click interface, the very nature of the puzzles becomes a puzzle itself. For example, you might know that you need to turn on the light by flipping the switch. In a point and click game, you would simply click on the light switch. However, in a text parser game, you would have to first figure out what the light switch is actually called within the game. It may be "light switch", or it might be "wall button", or it might be "bulb clicker" or who knows what. The only way you'll find out is by constantly typing LOOK at everything until you know. That my friends, is far from fun, and is exactly why the text parser was left behind quickly as the arcane device it was by Sierra long, long ago. Instead of drawing you further into the game, the text parser only serves to remind you that you are indeed playing a game afterall. For atmosphere's sake, it would seem as a game designer you would wish to have as transparent an interface as possible. Because of this, it is quite a mystery as to why Ben Croshaw choose to make Trilby's Notes a text parser adventure. He said it was due to the "Notes" aspect of the game, if I read correctly. An artistic throwback if you will. However, I was left feeling that this decision was one of bawdy haughtiness. It's easily evident how difficult making a text parser game is compared to a point and click adventure; how much forethought is involved. So it is perhaps out of pride that Yahtzee chose to show that he could indeed out-do the old masters, yet with a modern twist. But this twist was at the expense of the player's patience. I can't see anyone really being excited about playing a text parser adventure in 2006... I mean, there's retro-cool, and there's retro-kitsch, and the text parser falls within the latter. So, it is with much amazement that despite the crippling text parser, Trilby's Notes puzzles remain mostly logical, intuitive, and for the most part, rather easy. I got through all of them without need of a walkthrough (a first for a Days game). Unfortunately, and quite sadly, the very last puzzle, which is indeed the final scene of the game, is so completely unintuitive, so unlogical from a player's standpoint, and so hindered by the text parser interface, that it very nearly ruins the entire game. Honestly, the last thing you want to do is taint the ending, but that is exactly what Ben manages to do, thanks to a puzzle which is quite frankly the absolute worst puzzle I've ever seen in any adventure game I've ever played in my nearly 20 years of playing adventure games. So when you consult a walkthrough to finish Trilby's Notes, don't feel bad... everyone else did too. Even if they won't admit it. Because of the text parser and the final puzzle, I have to give Trilby's Notes' puzzles a 5/10, but thankfully most of them are easy enough, if you have fast typing skills and a big bottle of patience.


Overall:

Overall I would give Trilby's Notes a 9/10.

Strengths:

Interesting Story
Consistent Graphics
Excellent Animation
Great Sound FX
Fantastic Atmosphere
Intelligent Conversations
Plenty of Humor

Weaknesses:

Music is Subpar and Uninvolving
Text Parser Interface
The Final "Puzzle"
Silent Hill influence a little too obvious

Conclusion:

Trilby's Notes, like it's forebearers, is a must play adventure game for fans of the genre. And yes, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw is indeed still the AGS King. If only he could be given a team, plenty of capital, and a fat contract... who knows what fabulous games he could produce. Still, maybe the Days series will become a book... than a movie... and then a big budget conhesive gaming experience afterall. Until then, you SHOULD buy the Special Editions of his games, I do.